Deconstructing Disney

by Martin Mc Quillan (Author), EleanorByrne (Author)

New
Paperback
1999
$34.00

Demonising Disney is nothing new. Disney films have long been synonymous with a certain conservative, patriarchal, heterosexual ideology, occupying a centre-stage position at the heart of the evil empire. Deconstructing Disney takes issue with knee-jerk polarities, overturning classical oppositions and recognising that, just as the Disney 'text' has changed, so too must the terms of critical engagement.

This book is a sharply focused deconstruction of the political culture - and the cultural politics - of the Disney canon in the years since the emergence of the so-called New World Order. Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan offer a critical encounter with Disney which alternates between readings of individual texts and wider thematic concerns such as race, gender and sexuality, the broader context of American contemporary culture, and the global ambitions and insularity of the last great superpower. The movies discussed include The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocohontas, Snow White, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Hercules and Mulan.

Synopsis

Demonising Disney is nothing new. Disney films have long been synonymous with a certain conservative, patriarchal, heterosexual ideology, occupying a centre-stage position at the heart of the evil empire. Deconstructing Disney takes issue with knee-jerk polarities, overturning classical oppositions and recognising that, just as the Disney 'text' has changed, so too must the terms of critical engagement.

This book is a sharply focused deconstruction of the political culture - and the cultural politics - of the Disney canon in the years since the emergence of the so-called New World Order. Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan offer a critical encounter with Disney which alternates between readings of individual texts and wider thematic concerns such as race, gender and sexuality, the broader context of American contemporary culture, and the global ambitions and insularity of the last great superpower. The movies discussed include The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocohontas, Snow White, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Hercules and Mulan.

$34.00

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Publisher: Pluto Press
Published: 20 Oct 1999
ISBN 10: 0745314511
ISBN 13: 9780745314518
Book Overview: Martin McQuillan is the author of Post Theory

Media Reviews

'What could could be more innocent that Disney animated films? Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan set out to prove how wrong that assumption is in their ideological critique. They join the growing number of critics who argue that Disney's hegemony in the contemporary world ... insightful and uncanny' -- Scope: Online Journnal of Film Studies

Author Bio

Eleanor Byrne is a Lecturer in post-Colonial Literature at University College Worcester and writes on aspects of culture and postcoloniality. Martin McQuillan is Professor of Literary Theory and Cultural Analysis and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University, London, where he is also Co-Director of The London Graduate School He is the author, along with Eleanor Byrne, of Deconstructing Disney (Pluto, 1999), Paul de Man (Routledge, 2000) and editor of The Narrative Reader (Routledge, 2000), Theorising Muriel Spark (AIAA, 2002) and The Politics of Deconstruction (Pluto, 2007).